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n 1322, Charles IV, great grandson of Saint Louis, acceded to the throne of France and was crowned King at the Cathedral of Reims. A mere two years later, he took as his third bride Jeanne d'Evreux, daughter of the Count of Evreux and his first cousin. Their brief union, which produced three daughters, and his reign as the last of the Capetian kings, ended abruptly with his death in the winter of 1328. Yet it left an extraordinary legacy: some time during their short marriage, Charles presented his wife with a richly illustrated Prayer Book that she would cherish throughout her long widowhood. In her will of 1371, she bequeathed this precious small book to Charles V, the great bibliophile King.

Medieval books of hours, intended for the private use of their aristocratic owners, often contain valuable clues to their original ownership within their texts and rich decoration.

One of the keys to the understanding of this extraordinarily refined manuscript is found on the opening page of the Hours of the Virgin. Beneath the image of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, a young Queen kneels in prayer, cradling a book in her hands.

She appears again at the opening of the cycle of prayers honouring Saint Louis of France, great grandfather of both of Jeanne d'Evreux and of her husband, Charles IV, who commissioned a book of prayers for his young Queen. This book, The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, was treasured by the Queen throughout her life

In addition to the Hours of the Virgin and the Hours of Saint Louis, this manuscript contains a devotional cycle dedicated to the canonised thirteenth century French King, Louis IX. At the opening of each set of prayers is a scene from his life.

One of the most engaging hallmarks of the Prayer Book of Jeanne d'Evreux is its rich repertory of over 700 marginal figures. Inventive and whimsical, they delight and charm.

Among the hundreds of figures and fanciful creatures that appear in the margins, and are contained within initials of the Prayer Book, an astonishing number play musical instruments. Some of these illustrations provide important historical documentation for the study of music. Others are full of fancy, like the creature with the head and robe of a Monk but the body of a lion who plucks a bellows like a guitar, while singing from a musical score held by a monk. On the same page, a youthful character plays a psaltery. In fact, musical instruments appear in many of the most amusing scenes.

A variety of different instruments of the Middle Ages appear elsewhere in the manuscript including psalteries, shawns, trumpets, transverse flutes, mandolas, triangles and drums, often presented with elements of humour and fantasy

Within the confines of this tiny Prayer Book, the splendid ornament of the Gothic cathedral is evoked. Surrounding the miniatures are frames with delicate tracery, miniature crockets, pencil thin buttresses and even tiny gargoyles - a decorative vocabulary that the manuscript shares with the greatest architectural monuments of Paris as the Sainte Chapelle, and with its churches most precious and mostly lost Goldsmith work. The precision of the artists drawing simply defies comparison - shown to advantage by the use of grisailles.

The Prayer Book offers precious glimpses of daily life. At the bottom of the calendar page for September, a man stands knee deep in a barrel receiving baskets of grapes to be made into wine, while a woman presses a single bunch to her lips.

Through the use of grisaille, the twenty five large miniatures achieve a three dimensionality that recalls contemporary sculpture and ivory carving. With the subtle use of colour for hands and feet, this technique is given life. These delicate tones resonate with the use of richly coloured grounds that find their echo in Gothic enameling and stained glass.

The artistic legacy of this manuscript can be felt for several generations after the death in 1334 of Jean Pucelle, the most important manuscript painter of this period.

This magnificent book of hours, one of the greatest masterpieces of Gothic art, is being reproduced by Faksimile Verlag Luzern in a limited edition of only 980 copies.

The book contains illustrations of extraordinary quality; it is also an exceptionally rich devotional text. It includes a calendar of the Church year, the Office of the Virgin, a prayer cycle dedicated to Saint Louis, the Penitential Psalms and a litany of Saints.

Because of the exceptionally small format of the prayer book of Jeanne d'Evreux (only 90 x 60 mm), and especially because of the distinctive character of the marginal illustrations and droleries, Faksimile Verlag Luzern has had to develop completely new techniques to capture the quality of this manuscript. The result is that the more than 800 creatures found within its pages have being reproduced with astonishing clarity and liveliness.

All of the 418 pages (209 folios) of the prayer book have been accurately reproduced, with the more than 800 initials and marginal figures set on the pages. The binding is fully in keeping with the preserved seventeenth century book cover, with its rich brown leather and delicate gold tooling and the coat of arms decorated with fleurs-de-lys. The binding is secured with paired silver clasps terminating in tiny beasts heads. The neat tail and fore-edge are gild. Thus the production of the facsimile represents a marriage of the most modern techniques and ancient craft traditions.

The commentary volume has been prepared by Dr. Barbara Drake Boehm, Curator, The Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. The text presents, for the first time, the full contents of the Latin devotions along with new information about the manuscript and descriptions of all the miniatures.

A Documentation Kit containing sample pages from the The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux facsimile is available for $US70.